Dear Science and Other Stories (Errantries)

220 Pages·2021·13.046 MB·English

by  Katherine McKittrick

DEAR SCIENCE AND OTHER STORIES
ERRANTRIES
A series edited by Simone Browne,
Deborah Cowen, and Katherine McKittrick
Series Editorial Advisory Board
Jacqueline Nassy Brown, Paul Gilroy,
Gayatri Gopinath, Avery Gordon, Richa Nagar,
AbdouMaliq Simone, Françoise Vergès,
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Bobby Wilson
DEAR SCIENCE and Other Stories
Katherine McKittrick
DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS DURHAM AND LONDON 2021
© 2021 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ∞
Designed by Amy Ruth Buchanan
Typeset in Arno Pro and Trade Gothic by Copperline Book Services
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: McKittrick, Katherine, author.
Title: Dear science and other stories / Katherine McKittrick.
Other titles: Errantries.
Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2021. | Series: Errantries |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lccn 2020016402 (print)
lccn 2020016403 (ebook)
isbn 9781478010005 (hardcover)
isbn 9781478011040 (paperback)
isbn 9781478012573 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: African Americans—Study and teaching. |
African Americans—Social conditions. | Race—Philosophy. | African
American feminists. | Cross-cultural studies.
Classification: lcc e185.86 .m355 2021 (print) |
lcc e185.86 (ebook) |
ddc 305.896/073—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020016402
lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020016403
Cover art: Farley Hill National Park, Barbados.
Photo by Katherine McKittrick.
For Sylvia.
For Ellison,
again.
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CONTENTS
xi HE LIKED TO SAY THAT THIS LOVE WAS THE RESULT OF A CLINICAL ERROR
1 Curiosities (My Heart Makes My Head Swim)
14 Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered about the Floor)
35 The Smallest Cell Remembers a Sound
58 Consciousness (Feeling like, Feeling like This)
71 Something That Exceeds All Efforts to Definitively Pin It Down
75 No Place, Unknown, Undetermined
79 Notes
83 Black Ecologies. Coral Cities. Catch a Wave
87 Charmaine’s Wire
91 Polycarbonate, Aluminum (Gold), and Lacquer
95 Black Children
99 Telephone Listing
103 Failure (My Head Was Full of Misty Fumes of Doubt)
122 The Kick Drum Is the Fault
125 (Zong) Bad Made Measure
151 I Got Life/Rebellion Invention Groove
168 (I Entered the Lists)
186 Dear Science
189 Notes and Reminders
193 STORYTELLERS
211 DIEGESES AND BEARINGS
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There is no life that is not geographic.
— Ruth Wilson Gilmore